Aviation requires different types of lights based on the activity and state of the aircraft. Landing lights are designed to focus light far enough ahead of the aircraft to illuminate the landing strip. Typical landing light beam patterns are focused in a spotlight manner for maximum distance and penetration but require a beam angle wide enough to illuminate a typical 100′ to 150′ wide landing strip. Beam angles range from 10 to 15 degrees. Designs vary, with the number of landing lights ranging from one to four. Taxi lights are used during ground operations to provide illumination on landing strips, taxiways and near hangars. Beam angles for taxi lights range from 18 to 40 degrees. Recognition lights are used in flight to provide illumination of the aircraft for outside observers and flight safety.
Stock aviation lights are incandescent lamps similar to standard household lights but with a more robust design for ruggedness. Most use a parabolic reflector design and are sized by the PAR standard established in ANSI C79.1 American National Standard. Lamp sizes are determined by the outer diameter of the lamp in inches divided by 8. For example, a PAR 36 lamp is 4.5″ in diameter, a PAR 46 lamp is 5.75″ in diameter, etc.
Standard landing light lamps are adapted for power in the 250 to 600 watt range. Standard taxi lights have power ratings in the 100 to 250 watt range.
Standard replacement or “OEM” HID lighting components use single parabolic reflectors having a circular profile, are designed to a PAR standard, and contain a single HID bulb and ballast. The present invention, in contrast, incorporates two or more reflectors and a like number of HID bulbs inside a circular housing with a mounting ring that is sized to replace a stock lamp in a standard PAR size.